Descendants of slaves, slave owners gather to save cemetery

PLATTE CITY, Mo. -- Descendants of slave owners and descendants of slaves gathered to preserve history and make sure the final resting place of their ancestors remains undisturbed.

Brought together by a proposed relocation of several homestead cemeteries on Kansas City International Airport property, those descendants held a 90-minute ceremony Saturday at the Miller-Rixey cemetery, one of the gravesites that was targeted for relocation.

The city's plan was to move marked graves from five cemeteries on airport property to a five-acre site near Tiffany Springs Park. The relocation, city officials said, was needed to spur economic development on the 7,000 acres of vacant airport property.

But the relocation plan, for which the city sought a court order, did not include unmarked slave graves that descendants say are buried near those cemeteries.

The event, which was called Unity Circle of Prayer Day: A Celebration of Common Ancestry, was scheduled before a Platte County judge ruled April 17 that the city had not shown sufficient cause to move the graves.

The ruling was a victory for the descendants, who argued in court that their ancestors' remains should not be disturbed. And to further honor their ancestors, they organized Saturday's event.

The Miller-Rixey cemetery has as many as 40 graves, with slaves occupying perhaps more than a third of the plots.

"This is a chance to acknowledge that slavery was wrong and that [pioneers and slaves] helped make Platte County the county that it was," said Olin Miller, a Platte City insurance agent whose ancestors settled in Platte County and are buried in the Miller-Rixey cemetery.

Speakers had to pause periodically as landing airplanes roared toward the nearby airport.

The service ended with everybody joining hands and forming a large ring around the tables and chairs.

The Rev. Charles E. Johnson, pastor of New Life Baptist Church in Platte City, gave the final prayer. Reflecting on the gathering afterward, Johnson said: "It's a blessing from God -- truly a blessing -- when all of God's people can come together in unity."